Peter DavidsonPeter brings over twelve years of marketing experience for both a professional services firm and a large non-profit organization. Peter has built successful permission email marketing systems, word of mouth marketing programs and has built communities of interest around a variety of topics using blogs. He currently writes for three blogs on marketing, branding, design and technology.

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A Word About Frequency

One of the most important things to do when figuring out how to do a email newsletter is to figure out the right frequency to send your newsletter. Anything is possible, of course. Some newsletters publish daily, some weekly, some monthly and some quarterly. What's important is figuring out how frequently you can communicate with your customers and prospects in a way that consistently adds value to the relationship without becoming an irritant.

Part of the answer is the quality of the content. Fresh insights and valuable education are a must. If your issues are full of repetitive marketing speak readers won't value them. Remember people pay attention to what is new. They also value education and information apart from constant sales pitches.

Another piece of the puzzle is watching carefully what the measurements have to reveal. I mentioned the article about understanding newsletter metrics below. Watching the ups and downs of your open rates and click-thrus will tell you about the value your subscribers place on your newsletter.

Stats that indicate a high open rate and click-thru indicate that your content is valuable and relevant. You may consider ways to increase your frequency. You may want to experiment with special issues.

Stats that reflect declining open rates may indicate that subscribers don't find value in your newsletters.

Stats that reflect high open rates with low click-thru rates indicates that subscribers are open to hearing from you but aren't finding relevant content.

These are simple interpretations of complex measurements. The point is that developing and maintaining a dynamic newsletter that adds value to your business is a challenge. It's much more than writing a new sales brochure every month.

Reading the tea leaves of newsletter measurements is as much art as science. One of the values of outsourcing your email newsletter publishing is having experienced list managers who can help you understand just what is happening with your newsletters.